Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Part 38

HABITAT.--Thibet.[14]

[Footnote 14: Milne-Edwards describes this animal in his 'Recherches sur les Mammiferes,' page 341.]

NO. 215. FELIS SHAWIANA.

_The Yarkand Spotted Wild-Cat_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Molun_, Turki.

HABITAT.--Turkistan, Yarkand.

DESCRIPTION.--"General colour pale greyish fulvous above, the back rather darker than the sides; under parts white; the body marked throughout with rather small black spots which are largest on the abdomen, smaller and closer together on the shoulders and thighs, tending to form cross lines on the latter, and indistinct on the middle of the back; anterior portion of the face and muzzle whitish; cheek stripes of rusty red and black; hairs mixed; ears rather more rufous outside, especially towards the tip, which is blackish brown and pointed; the hairs at the end scarcely lengthened; interior of ears white; there are some faint rufous spots at the side of the neck; breast very faintly rufous, with one narrow brownish band across; inside of limbs mostly white; a black band inside the forearm, and a very black spot behind the tarsus; tail dusky above near the base, with five or six black bars above on the posterior half, none below, the dark bars closer together towards the tip; fur soft, moderately long, purplish grey towards the base."

SIZE.--Apparently exceeds that of the common cat, and equals _F.

chaus_; the tail about half the length of the body.

I have taken the above description from Mr. W. T. Blanford ('Report on the Second Yarkand Mission: Mammalia') who has first described and named this new species. There is also an excellent plate in the same portion of the report, which unfortunately is published at an almost prohibitive price, and to be obtained at the Government Press.

The black spots on the belly have been inadvertently left out; otherwise the plate is excellent, as are all the others, especially the osteological ones.

NO. 216. FELIS CHAUS.

_The Common Jungle-Cat_ (_Jerdon's No. 115_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Kutas_ (according to Jerdon, but I have always found this applied to the _Paradoxurus_), _Jangli-billi_, _Ban-bilao_, Hindi; _Ban beral_, Bengali; _Birka_, Bhagalpor Hill Tribes; _Maut-bek_, Canarese; _Kada-bek_ or _Bella-bek_ of Waddars; _Mota lahn manjur_, Mahrathi; _Bhaoga_, Mahrathi of the Ghats; _Jinki-pilli_, Telegu; _Cheru-pali_, Malabarese (_Jerdon_); _Khyoung-Tsek-koon_ in Arakan.

HABITAT.--Common all over India from 7,000 or 8,000 feet of elevation in the Himalayas, down to Cape Comorin and the Island of Ceylon. It is also found in a.s.sam and Burmah. This species appears to have a wide range, as it has been found also in Persia, on the borders of the Caspian and in Egypt.

DESCRIPTION.--Larger somewhat, and more lanky than the domestic cat.

The general appearance of the fur a rusty or grizzly grey; the hairs being pale fulvous brown with dark tips; more rufous on the sides of the abdomen and neck, the lower parts being white; faint transverse stripes, occasionally broken into spots on the sides, but these markings disappear with old age, and are more difficult to trace in the deeper furred specimens from cold countries; the markings are darker on the limbs, and there is a distinct black bar on the forearm near the elbow; inside are two or three dark stripes; the feet are blackish underneath; often a dark bar across the chest, and sometimes faint spots on the belly; rufous stripes on the cheek; a dark stripe ascends from the eye, especially in the young animal, and it has sometimes faint stripes on the nape mingling on the forehead; the ears are slightly tufted, dark externally, white within; the tail, which is short, is more or less ringed from the middle to the tip, which is black. Melanoid specimens have been found.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 26 inches; tail, nine to ten; height at shoulder, 14 to 15 inches.

This rather common cat is, in some degree, related to the lynxes, sufficiently distinct, yet resembling the latter in its tufted ears, short tail, long limbs, and some few peculiarities of the skull.

Jerdon says of it: "It frequents alike jungles and the open country, and is very partial to long gra.s.s and reeds, sugar-cane fields, corn fields, &c. It does much damage to game of all kinds--hares, partridges, &c., and quite recently I shot a pea fowl at the edge of a sugar-cane field when one of these cats sprang out, seized the pea fowl, and after a short struggle (for the bird was not dead) carried it off before my astonished eyes, and in spite of my running up, made good his escape with his booty. It must have been stalking these birds, so immediately did its spring follow my shot." Blyth writes: "In India the _chaus_ does not shun, but even affects populous neighbourhoods, and is a terrible depredator among the tame ducks and poultry, killing as many as it can get at, but I have not known him to attack geese, of which I long kept a flock out day and night, about a tank where ducks could not be left out at night on account of these animals. A pair of them bred underneath my house, and I frequently observed them, and have been surprised at the most extraordinary humming sound which they sometimes uttered of an evening. Their other cries were distinguishable from those of the domestic cat." This species will, however, interbreed with the domestic cat. According to Hodgson it breeds twice a year in the woods, producing three or four kittens at a birth. It is said to be untameable, but in 1859, at Sa.s.seram, one of the men of my Levy caught a very young kitten, which was evidently of this species. I wrote at the time to a friend about a young mongoose which I had just got, and added, "It is great fun to see my last acquisition and a little jungle cat (_Felis chaus_) playing together. They are just like two children in their manner, romping and rolling over each other, till one gets angry, when there is a quarrel and a fight, which, however, is soon made up, the kitten generally making the first advances towards a reconciliation, and then they go on as merrily as ever.

The cat is a very playful, good tempered little thing; the colour is a reddish-yellow with darker red stripes like a tiger, and slightly spotted; the ears and eyes are very large; the orbits of the last bony and prominent. What is it? _Chaus_ or _Bengalensis_?[15]

I am not as yet learned in cats when very young. If it be a real jungle cat--which my shikaris declare it to be--it strangely belies the savage nature of its kind, as Thomson says:--

'The tiger darting fierce Impetuous on the prey his glance has doom'd The lively shining leopard speckled o'er With many a spot the beauty of the waste And scorning all the taming arts of man.'

"Poets are not always correct. Tigers have often been tamed, though they are not to be depended on."

[Footnote 15: Both reputed to be untameable.]

Now we come to the true Lynxes, which are cats with very short tails, long limbs, tufted ears, the cheeks whiskered almost as long as Dundreary's, and feet the pads of which are overgrown with hair. Some naturalists would separate them from the other cats, but the connection is supplied by the last species which, though possessing certain features of the lynx, yet interbreeds with the true cats.

The lynx was well known to the ancients, and was one of the animals used in the arena from its savage disposition, and its sight was considered so piercing as to be able to penetrate even stone walls!

There are no true lynxes in India proper; we must look to the colder Trans-Himalayan countries for them. The following is from Thibet:--

NO. 217. FELIS ISABELLINA.

_The Thibetan Lynx_.

HABITAT.--Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--"Pale isabella-brown, with scarcely a trace of markings, but in some the spots come out even conspicuously in summer _pelage_, especially on the limbs and belly, and the crown and middle of the back are generally more or less infuscated, occasionally very much so; in some the face is almost white, with traces of frontal streaks, and there is always (the same as in the European lynx) a short, narrow, dark streak on each side of the nose towards its tip."--_Blyth_.

This species is similar in some respects to the European animal, but the princ.i.p.al difference lies in the feet, the pads of which in the Thibetan species are prominent and bare, with short, close fur between them, whereas in the European lynx the long fur completely conceals the pads, and the latter is the larger animal. There is a very good photograph of _F. isabellina_ in Kinloch's 'Large Game Shooting in Thibet and the North-West,' taken from a carefully stuffed specimen. The author says: "On the 4th of July 1866, I was hunting _Oves Ammon_ on the high ground between Hanle and Nyima, when I suddenly came upon a female lynx with two young cubs. I shot the mother, and as the cubs concealed themselves among some rocks, I barricaded them in, and went on with my hunting. On arriving in camp I sent men back to try and catch the cubs; in this they succeeded, and brought them to me. They were about the size of half grown cats, and more spiteful vicious little devils cannot be imagined; they were, however, very handsome, with immense heads and paws. For two or three days they refused all food; but at the end of that time they fed quite ravenously from the hand. They soon became very tame and playful, though always ready to set their backs up if at all teased, or if a dog came near them."

The next species differs from the typical lynx in wanting the ruff of hair round the face, and also in having the pads of the feet bald.

The skull is that of a lynx, but the processes of the frontals and intermaxillae are not quite so much produced, and they do not entirely separate the nasal from the maxillae. There is a good ill.u.s.tration to be found in De Blainville's 'Osteographie.'

NO. 218. FELIS CARACAL.

_The Red Lynx_ (_Jerdon's No. 116_).

NATIVE NAME.--_Siagosh_, Persian, i.e., black ear.

HABITAT.--Scattered throughout India generally, a.s.sam (Burmah and Ceylon?), but it has also a much wider range, being found throughout Africa, Syria, and Arabia, and also in Persia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Felis caracal_.]

DESCRIPTION.--Colour sandy fulvous, varying somewhat in individuals; paler beneath, in some almost white; tail the same colour as the body, with a black tip; the lower parts with some obscure spots, more or less distinct on the belly, flanks and insides of limbs; ears black externally, with a long dark ear tuft, white inside; a small blackish spot on the upper lip, and another above the eye, also a line down each side of the nose. In some individuals faint bars and caudal rings are discernible, and the chest is obscurely banded.

SIZE.--Head and body, 26 to 30 inches; tail, 9 or 10; height, 16 to 18 inches.

This handsome lynx is found, though not very common, in most parts of the Indian Peninsula, although Jerdon states that it is unknown in the Himalayas, Bengal, and the eastern countries. In those parts where it abounds it is very destructive to small game, such as gazelles, the smaller deer and hares. It also catches such birds as pea-fowl, florican, cranes, &c., frequently springing at them from the ground as they fly over. They are easily tamed. I had a young one at Seonee, and the natives of some parts are said to train them for sporting purposes in the manner in which the hunting leopard is trained.

Blyth says a brace of siagosh are often pitted against each other by the natives who keep them, a heavy wager pending as to which of the two will disable the greater number out of a flock of tame pigeons feeding, before the ma.s.s of them can rise out of reach, and ten or a dozen birds are commonly struck down right and left.

"It is a most sanguinary creature, yet the keepers manage them with facility, and slip the hood over their eyes with extreme dexterity, while they are engaged with their prey. In general they become quite tame to persons they know, and often sufficiently so to bear handling by a stranger. Much as I have seen of them I never heard one utter a sound, except hissing and growling."

With regard to this last a.s.sertion of Mr. Blyth's I may say that the caracal differs very much from the European lynx, who, according to Tschudi, betrays his presence by horrible howlings audible at a great distance. Professor Kitchen Parker writes that the specimen now in the Zoological Gardens is a most cantankerous beast.[16] "If the American lynx, who is unfortunate enough to live in the same cage with him, dares to come betwixt the wind and his n.o.bility, or even if he, in the course of his peregrinations, should, by chance, get sufficiently near his companion to be annoyed with the sight of so vulgar a beast, he immediately arches his back, lays back his ears, uncovers his great canines, and swears in a most fearful manner until the other unlucky animal is quite cowed, and looks as meek as its feline nature will allow it, evidently deprecating the anger of my lord; and although not conscious of having done wrong, quite ready to promise faithfully never to do it again."

[Footnote 16: I can bear witness to this, having lately made his acquaintance.]

We now take up the last member of the Cat family; one differing so much in certain respects as to have been cla.s.sed by some authors as a separate genus, to which Wagner gave the name of _Cynaelurus_, or dog-cat, which, however, is not appropriate, as the animal, though having the slender form of the greyhound, and in having the claws of its middle front toes but imperfectly retractile, is, in its anatomy and all osteological features, a true cat. As I have before remarked it is to this animal alone that the name leopard should be applied, the peculiar ruff or s.h.a.gginess of hair on the neck having given rise to the ancient superst.i.tion that this animal was a cross between the lion and the pard, whence its name Leo-Pardus. There are three varieties found in Africa and India--one, the maneless leopard, is confined to Africa, where also is found in the south a woolly variety with light brown spots. The maned leopard is found all over South-West Asia, including India.

NO. 219. FELIS JUBATA.

_The Hunting Leopard_ (_Jerdon's No. 117_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Chita_, Hindi; _Yuz_ of the Chita-catchers; _Kendua-bagh_, Bengali; _Laggar_ in some parts; _Chita Puli_, Telegu; _Chircha_ and _Sivungi_, Canarese.

HABITAT.--Central or Southern India, and in the North-West from Kandeish, through Scinde and Rajpootana, to the Punjab. It is also found in all Africa, with Syria and Arabia, and throughout Asia Minor.

In India the places where it is most common are Jeypur in Upper India, and Hyderabad in Southern India.